Woman goes big with $50 Florida Lottery ticket and wins life-changing prize

Miami Herald

10-04-2025

Spending $50 on a single lottery ticket is a big gamble for most people, but it ended in a huge lottery win for one Florida woman.
Elizabeth Stewart, 58, bought the 500X the Cash ticket at Publix in her hometown of Mount Dora, and a series of scratches quickly revealed she had won $1 million, according to the Florida Lottery.
That's a second-tier prize in the game and the odds of winning it are 1-in-274,004, the lottery said.
Stewart picked up her winnings Wednesday, April 9, and was given a choice of having it parceled out over time or taking it in a lump sum — minus a lot of tax withholding.
'She chose to receive her winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $640,000,' lottery officials said.
Stewart was clearly aiming high when she bought the 500X the Cash ticket, which has a $25 million top prize — 'the largest ever offered on a Florida Scratch-Off game.'
Two top prizes were offered when the game launched in January 2024, and the odds of winning one is an intimidating 1-in-21,920,355. (Only one top prize remains.)
Mount Dora is about a 35-mile drive northwest of Orlando.
The Publix store where Stewart bought the ticket got a $2,000 commission 'for selling the winning scratch-off ticket,' lottery officials said.